Synthesis and thermoluminescence characteristics of rare earth doped nanophosphors

In this study we have investigated the thermoluminescence (TL) properties of Sr-doped magnesium tetraborate (MBO) and KCl doped zinc borate (ZnB2O4) nano phosphors, which were synthesized by using the high temperature solid-state and solution combustion method. The glow curves of the samples were evaluated by using 90Sr-90Y (≈ 0.04 Gy/s) beta source for different dose levels between 0.2 Gy and 288 Gy and the kinetic parameters such as activation energy (Ea), and order of kinetics (b) were calculated by using different methods. The experimental results for Sr-doped MBO nano phosphor indicated that it has main glow peak with highest intensity at approximately 200 °C with good linearity of the dose–response up to 570 Gy. On the other hand the experimental results for KCl doped ZnB2O4 nano phosphor has shown that it has a broad glow curve structure, which consists of nine glow peaks. The fading characteristics of the samples were also studied over a period time. The samples were irradiated and stored in a darkroom at room temperature. At the end of the planned storage times the normalized TL area, of Sr-doped MBO reduced typically 50% and KCl doped ZnB2O4 reduced 70% of its original value. Keywords: Thermoluminescence, dosimeter, kinetic parameter, MgB4O7:Sr, ZnB2O4:KCl, solid-state reaction method, solution combustion method, nanoparticle